The comment provoked an immediate reaction on Twitter, not least from Farage himself. "Perhaps [Anna Soubry] should spend less time investigating digital rectal insertion and more on her brief?" he tweeted.
Farage added: "She is rude and incompetent. I would expect an apology – but I won't be holding my breath."

In a statement, he said: "This is a woman who was proven to not even have a grip on her portfolio back in November when on Question Time she showed she had absolutely no idea about the Royal Navy support ships being built in South Korea."She also launched a vile attack on me then, claiming I was 'putting fear into people's hearts' by raising concerns over unrestricted immigration. The same concerns that today her party are so desperate to try to address."But this latest, remarkable foul-mouthed attack is utterly incredulous. Soubry has stooped to the levels of crudity that any politician would spend a lifetime apologising for.

"This is supposed to be a professional woman representing her political party on a national television programme on a Sunday morning. Well, I am astonished, and I would imagine the rest of her party is too, as well as deeply embarrassed."